A Palestinian family will tomorrow appeal a decision to evict its members from their home in Sheikh Jarrah, occupied East Jerusalem.
According to human rights NGO Ir Amim, the Jerusalem Magistrate Court will hear “the appeal against the Execution Office’s decision to carry out the eviction of the Sabbagh family in the Kerem Alja’oni section of Sheikh Jarrah”.
“The Sabbagh family attorneys argue that the initial eviction ruling applied only to the building additions on their home and not to the original structure they have resided in since the 1950s,” Ir Amim noted.
Residents of Sheikh Jarrah are bracing for a new wave of evictions, ten years after Israeli settlers attempted to take over Palestinian homes in the embattled East Jerusalem neighborhood https://t.co/vd4wJFScJt
— +972 Magazine (@972mag) December 12, 2018
According to the NGO, this is currently “the only legal measure preventing the immediate displacement of this 32-member family, at risk of becoming refugees for a second time after first losing their home in Jaffa in 1948.”
Based on the eviction notice given to the family on 31 March 2019, Israeli occupation authorities originally intended to carry out the expulsion sometime between 28 April and 8 May.
However, after the Sabbagh family submitted an appeal against the eviction decision, a temporary court freeze was obtained, “and a subsequent hearing scheduled for September”.
Police detain a demonstrator at the weekly march in Sheikh Jarrah against the imminent eviction of the Sabbagh family & others, whose homes will be taken & given to Israeli settlers. pic.twitter.com/pV7eIYbhxj
— ??????? ????? -هيذر شارونا (@sharona_weiss) February 1, 2019
Ir Amim noted that should the Jerusalem Magistrate Court uphold the eviction, “the Sabbagh family will be the tenth family in the eastern part of Sheikh Jarrah to have their home seized by settlers”.
Meanwhile, the NGO continued, “some thirty Palestinian families are under threat of eviction and at least eleven have open court cases in this area, while an estimated 35 families are at risk of eviction in Um Haroun, on the west side of Sheik Jarrah.”
(Middle East Monitor, PC, Social Media)
